her words, her quiet tone of voice, stopped him more than 20 years later from breaking into this man's house. i said mr. len nerd was a genre writer but this is a technicality. it cannot hold him. as we crown elmore leanord tonight, let's remember the iron law propounded by vladimir, there is only one school of writing, that is talent. thank you very much. [applause] ♪ ♪ [applause] >> this is a nice act to follow, i'll tell you. martin and i have been making appearances together for the last, oh, several years. here in los angeles. what i do is describe martin amis as the complete literary star at the top of his game, and then i might mention i have appeared as a category on jeopardy. several times. [laughter] >> earlier this year, when i began writing a book i'm cowling "blue dreams" which incidentally is taken from the name of a marijuana, although that's the marijuana reference earlier had nothing to do with me. i thought it might turn out to be my last novel. number 46 to add to the stack. [applause] >> i was finally getting tired. then the first chapter of the book sold to the